Oh what a night: Jersey Boys returns to San Francsico

SAN FRANCISCO -- Every morning, Nick Cosgrove warms his voice up in the shower for 20 minutes.

That's an exercise prescribed by Frankie Valli himself -- the bigger-than-life (but short) lead vocalist of the Four Seasons that Cosgrove plays in the national tour of "Jersey Boys."

"If Frankie Valli told me to sing in the shower, I'm going to do it," Cosgrove said last week, just days before the "Jersey Boys" opening night in San Francisco's Curran Theatre.

It's a homecoming of sorts for "Jersey Boys," which launched its national tour from San Francisco in 2006.

"It's kind of nice to come somewhere relatively warmer," said John Gardiner, who plays the Four Seasons' Tommy DeVito.

The show chronicles the rise of the band from a collection of scruffy boys from New Jersey to one of the most best-selling musical groups of all time.

"This is a show about guys -- just regular guys -- who happen to be supremely talented," said Michael Lomenda, who plays Nick Massi, explaining why the Tony Award-winning musical still appeals.

Like the men they play, the four leads of "Jersey Boys" come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Some, like Gardiner, are years-long veterans of the show. Others, like Miles Jacoby (Bob Gaudio) have been on the tour for a few months. Cosgrove grew up listening to the group's music, thanks to his mother, while Jacoby did not.

"(But) when I first saw the show, I realized how much music I knew was really from the Four Seasons," Jacoby said.

Being on a national tour adds an extra dimension to "Jersey Boys," Gardiner said, who draws many parallels between the Four Seasons and the four actors who play them on stage.

"We're four guys on the road playing music and singing about four guys on the road playing music," Gardiner said.